Abstract

In this research we are evaluating how internet affects interpersonal business relationships. We have noticed t at t xisting it ratur t at t u s up n int rn t’s effects are mainly concerned with “that” and “what” internet affects. What we want to study is ”how” internet affects and in this study, how employees use internet as a medium and how internet affects interpersonal business relationship creation and building. This study is driven by our own curiosity as we want to learn more about this field as we will most probably come across it later in our careers. The study was conducted through a comparative case study design where the data was gathered through interviews with seven individuals who uses internet in their working life to communicate with customers. The interviews allowed us to see that internet was used in different ways and that the communication had different aims. We adopted the thematic analysis method when analyzing our data and found that int rn t’s ff t n busin ss r ati ns ips diff r d b tw n diff r nt bran s. It a s became evident that different individuals used it to different degrees when it came to actually creating and building relationships with the medium. From our finding we can conclude that: Internet does affect interpersonal business relationship creation and building but the effect might be both positive and negative depending on the user of the medium. The change inflicted on the business relationships by internet was also dependent on the line of business.